CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Mitt Romney: 'It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid.'

Celebrating his five April 24 primary victories, Mitt Romney put the  Obamacrats on notice that despite their "diversions, distractions, and distortions" -- such as the class warfare and war against women, the presidential campaign is "still about the economy…and we’re not stupid."

There is good reason Americans care about the economy, jobs, debt and the deficit than Obama's distractions. As Professor Steve Roberts is fond of saying there are really only two campaign slogans -- You never had it so good or it's time for a change. Romney's "its still about the economy…and w’re not stupid," slogan is an effective version of its time for a change. That leaves Obama the task of trying to convince voters we never had so good. I wish the president a lot of luck making that case in the face of his failed policies.

Even Obama admits that Americans are not better off than they were four years ago. Obama's concession invites a comparison to President Carter's failed presidency using the devastating, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" question posed by then presidential candidate Ronald Reagan at the end of his debate with Jimmy Carter on October 28, 1980. Obama also recognizes that because of his failed policies his presidency is a "one-term proposition."

Watch Romneys"'It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid," speech.

Transcripts of Romney's remarks as prepared for delivery:

Thank you Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York! And tonight I can say thank you, America. After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, I can say with confidence – and gratitude – that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility. And, together, we will win on November 6th!

We launched this campaign not far from here on a beautiful June day. It has been an extraordinarily journey.

Americans have always been eternal optimists. But over the last three and a half years, we have seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership. Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less.

For every single mom who feels heartbroken when she has to explain to her kids that she needs to take a second job … for grandparents who can’t afford the gas to visit their grandchildren … for the mom and dad who never thought they’d be on food stamps … for the small business owner desperately cutting back just to keep the doors open one more month – to all of the thousands of good and decent Americans I’ve met who want nothing more than a better chance, a fighting chance, to all of you, I have a simple message: Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight.

Tonight is the start of a new campaign to unite every American who knows in their heart that we can do better! The last few years have been the best that Barack Obama can do, but it’s not the best America can do!

Tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the Obama years and the start of a new and better chapter that we will write together.

This has already been a long campaign, but many Americans are just now beginning to focus on the choice before the country. In the days ahead, I look forward to spending time with many of you personally. I want to hear what’s on your mind, hear about your concerns, and learn about your families. I want to know what you think we can do to make this country better…and what you expect from your next President.

And I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. I’ll probably start out talking about my wonderful wife Ann – I usually do – and I’ll probably bore you with stories about our kids and grandkids. I’ll tell you about how much I love this country, where someone like my dad, who grew up poor and never graduated from college, could pursue his dreams and work his way up to running a great car company. Only in America could a man like my dad become governor of the state in which he once sold paint from the trunk of his car.

I’d say that you might have heard that I was successful in business. And that rumor is true. But you might not have heard that I became successful by helping start a business that grew from 10 people to hundreds of people. You might not have heard that our business helped start other businesses, like Staples and Sports Authority and a new steel mill and a learning center called Bright Horizons. And I’d tell you that not every business made it and there were good days and bad days, but every day was a lesson. And after 25 years, I know how to lead us out of this stagnant Obama economy and into a job-creating recovery!

Four years ago Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?

Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?

If the answer were “yes” to those questions, then President Obama would be running for re-election based on his achievements…and rightly so. But because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions, distractions, and distortions. That kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time. But not here and not now. It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid.

People are hurting in America. And we know that something is wrong, terribly wrong with the direction of the country.

We know that this election is about the kind of America we will live in and the kind of America we will leave to future generations. When it comes to the character of America, President Obama and I have very different visions.

Government is at the center of his vision. It dispenses the benefits, borrows what it cannot take, and consumes a greater and greater share of the economy. With Obamacare fully installed, government will come to control half the economy, and we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society.

This President is putting us on a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards, commissions and czars. He’s asking us to accept that Washington knows best – and can provide all.

We’ve already seen where this path leads. It erodes freedom. It deadens the entrepreneurial spirit. And it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help. Those who promise to spread the wealth around only ever succeed in spreading poverty. Other nations have chosen that path. It leads to chronic high unemployment, crushing debt, and stagnant wages.

I have a very different vision for America, and of our future. It is an America driven by freedom, where free people, pursuing happiness in their own unique ways, create free enterprises that employ more and more Americans. Because there are so many enterprises that are succeeding, the competition for hard-working, educated and skilled employees is intense, and so wages and salaries rise.

I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living. I see children even more successful than their parents - some successful even beyond their wildest dreams – and others congratulating them for their achievement, not attacking them for it.

This America is fundamentally fair. We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice; we will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses; we will stop the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing; we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve; and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next.

In the America I see, character and choices matter. And education, hard work, and living within our means are valued and rewarded. And poverty will be defeated, not with a government check, but with respect and achievement that is taught by parents, learned in school, and practiced in the workplace.

This is the America that was won for us by the nation’s Founders, and earned for us by the Greatest Generation. It is the America that has produced the most innovative, most productive, and the most powerful economy in the world.

As I look around at the millions of Americans without work, the graduates who can't get a job, the soldiers who return home to an unemployment line, it breaks my heart. This does not have to be. It is the result of failed leadership and of a faulty vision. We will restore the promise of America only if we restore the principles of freedom and opportunity that made America the greatest nation on earth.

Today, the hill before us is a little steep but we have always been a nation of big steppers. Many Americans have given up on this President but they haven’t ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.

In the days ahead, join me in the next step toward that destination of November 6th, when across America we can give a sigh of relief and know that the Promise of America has been kept. The dreamers can dream a little bigger, the help wanted signs can be dusted off, and we can start again.

And this time we’ll get it right. We’ll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for America abroad.

There was a time – not so long ago – when each of us could walk a little taller and stand a little straighter because we had a gift that no one else in the world shared. We were Americans. That meant something different to each of us but it meant something special to all of us. We knew it without question. And so did the world.

Those days are coming back. That’s our destiny.

We believe in America. We believe in ourselves. Our greatest days are still ahead. We are, after all, Americans!

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

Gov. Scott Walker: 'I think when we win'

Speaking at an Illinois Policy Institute luncheon in Chicago, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said Friday that he believes he won't be recalled from office in June. 

According Chicago Tribune's Rick Pearson, Governor Walker told the audience that he is "running to win, but not afraid to lose. He also said that when he wins it will send a powerful message:

“I think when we win, it will not only reaffirm what we did. It will send a powerful message to every politician…in our state and even in our city governments who are trying to take on the tough issues and do the right thing,” Walker said. “It will send a powerful, powerful message that you can stick your neck out, you can make the tough choices and there will be voters helping you along the way.”

A recent poll from the Democrat-leaning Public Policy Polling, done for the Daily Kos, finds Walker leading all his Democratic rivals in the June recall election:

• Walker v. Barrett - 50% to 45%
• Walker v. Falk - 50% to 43%
• Walker v. La Follette - 51% to 40%
• Walker v. Vinehout - 50% to 38%.

The poll of likely voters was conducted April 13 to 15 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percent.

 

President Obama's measure of progress failure

In conjunction with his Obama convention 'prebuttal,' the Romney campaign released a video highlighting how the Obama Presidency has failed when evaluated by the measures of progress established by Obama. Four years ago at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, then-candidate Barack Obama said that Democrats measure progress by whether people can find a job and provide for themselves and their families.

Watch the "President Obama's Measure of Progress video:

The Romney Campaign does a nice job of making the video a failed Obama Presidency: North Carolina edition. In 2008, Obama became the first Democrat to carry North Carolina since 1976. Trying for a repeat, the Obama campaign Obama campaign has maintained a big presence in North Carolina and chose Charlotte for the Democrats' convention.

In North Carolina, it is not easy for people to find a job and provide for themselves and their families:

• Nearly 53,200 more people in North Carolina were unemployed in February than in January 2009, when Obama took office.
• Nearly 464,000 people were unemployed statewide in February, up 13 percent since January 2009.
• The state’s unemployment rate is 9.9 percent.

By highlighting the inconvenient truth that in North Carolina people cannot find jobs and provide for themselves and their families, the Romney campaign hopes to prevent the repeat.

Romney's Obama convention 'prebuttal'

"President Obama 'has failed by the measurements he set.'" Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney was Charlotte, North Carolina Wednesday. He stood in front of the Bank of America stadium where President Obama will formally accept the Democrats' nomination in September and offered a "prebuttal" to Obama’s convention address.

Romney went after Obama over the so-called stimulus, unemployment, debt, Medicare, Social Security, foreclosures, home values, gas prices and tuition.

Watch a video excerpt of Romney's prebuttal:

MITT ROMNEY: "Virtually nothing the President has done, including his stimulus, which protected government but did not encourage the private sector, virtually nothing he has done has made it more likely for people to get jobs. And so, for three-and-a-half years, we’ve had unemployment above 8 percent.

He set the measure; he has failed by the measurements he set. You won’t hear that at this convention, but you’re going to hear it at ours, I’ll tell you that.

Now, you’re also not going to hear, at his convention, that he is on track to add almost as much public debt to this country as all the prior presidents combined. Even having been critical of President George W. Bush for the debt he added, which of course was far less than that which is being added by this president.

You won’t hear that even though he’s been president for three-and-a-half years, he has yet to propose solutions to save Medicare and Social Security.

You won’t hear that he’s the first president in modern history, in any history, to cut Medicare by $500 billion to pay for his vaunted ObamaCare.

You won’t hear him repeat an accurate statement. I have one… I actually have one in mind in particular, which was from his speech four years ago. I mean listen to this, this is what he said four years ago, and I wish he’d repeat this, and I’m going to change one name at the end. He says ‘Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home’s value plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit cards, bills you can’t afford to pay and tuition that’s beyond your reach. These challenges are not all of the government’s making, but the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of…' Yeah, Barack Obama. I changed what word he had in there and put down Barack Obama.

Those things he said about the prior administration are absolutely accurate about his administration and that’s why even if you like Barack Obama, we can’t afford Barack Obama. It’s time to get someone that’ll get this economy going and put the American people back to work with good jobs and rising incomes."

It all comes back to Ronald Reagan's famous question: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" And even Obama admits that we are not better off than we were four years ago.

She-Pac endorses five Conservative women for U.S. Senate

She-Pac, a Conservative Super PAC formed to help elect Conservative women to Congress, endorses five Republican women candidates for U.S. Senate:

• Linda McMahon (Connecticut)
• Sarah Steelman (Missouri)
• Linda Lingle (Hawaii)
• Heather Wilson (New Mexico)
• Deb Fischer (Nebraska)

Watch the "2012 won't be a war on women. It will be a war by women" video:

The She-Pac message is that to change Washington, D.C., voters must elect new faces. It's a good ad using a sound clip from Ronald Reagan's 1964 "Time for Choosing" speech, citing Congress’s pathetic 13 percent approval rating and Margaret Thatcher's, "If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman," quote.

Democrats, in an attempt to win the women vote have manufactured a "war on women" controversies -- from turning turned a debate about religious liberty into a battle about contraceptives to
Hillary Rosen's ill-advised attack on Ann Romney.

Democrats are forced to use such despicable tactics because women are being left behind by Obama's failed policies:

 

• Since the Obama stimulus was passed, the unemployment rate for women has increased from 7.3% To 8.1%. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 4/9/12) 
• Since Obama took office, the number of unemployed women has increased by 683,000 -- from 5,005,000 to 5,863,000. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 4/6/12)
• In March 2012, the number of employed women fell by 82,000. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 4/6/12)
• Female job gains have slowed since the recession ended in june 2009. "While female workers largely held their own through the recession, job gains have slowed since the downturn ended in June 2009, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data on the demographics of the labor market recovery." (Vicki Needham, "Slower Job Growth For Women Voters Could Cost Obama In Election," The Hill's "On The Money," 3/25/12)

Happy tax day!

As you pay your taxes to the Obama regime consider some what you are getting for your money:

• Billions of wasted dollars in Solyndra-like "green energy" loans.
• $820,000 for a General Services Administration (GSA) "conference" in Las Vegas, complete with mind-readers and clowns.
• Week long trips to Hawaii for government bureaucrats to attend a single one hour ribbon cutting.

The folks at The American Future Fund produced a video that highlights these Obama administration scandals:

When President Obama is asked about such scandalous spending he responds:

"This is a pretty big government."

Obama takes a much different approach to responsibility than Harry "the buck stops here" Truman.

Remember that regardless of all the taxes we turn over to Obama and company today, it doesn't come close to paying for his unprecedented spending. Forty cents of every dollar the Obama government spends is borrowed and will burden our children and grand children.

November is coming.

Obama lead slips in Reuters and CNN polls

Two additional polls released today find Barack Obama's lead over Mitt Romney slipping.

The new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that Barack Obama's lead over Mitt Romney has narrowed to four percentage points 47% to 43% from the eleven point Obama lead a month ago.

The telephone poll of 1,044 adults included 891 registered voters, of whom 304 were Democrats, 235 were Republicans and 302 were independents. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for all respondents, 3.3 for registered voters, 4.2 for Democrats, 4.9 for Republicans and 9.8 for independents.

The new CNN/ORC International poll found Obama now leads Romney by nine points 52% to 43%. That is down from the eleven point Obama lead the poll found in March.

The CNN poll is remarkably at odds with the recent Rasmussen, Fox News and Gallup polls. A key difference in CNN vs. Gallup polls is that CNN found Obama leads by five points among Independents while  Gallup found Romney leads among Independents by six points. The Gallup daily tracking poll is 5-day average of 2,265 registered voters and CNN polled 910 registered voters.

The CNN poll was conducted April 13-15, with 1,015 adult Americans, including 910 registered voters, questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

I would put a little more stock in the Gallup poll over the CNN poll. In any event as Gallup's Frank Newport explains, polling done in the spring of an election year is not necessarily a reliable predictor for the election outcome.

It is way too early to get very excited by the presidential campaign polling.

Romney leads in Gallup's Obama v. Romney daily tracking poll

Gallup reports that Mitt Romney leads Barack Obama 47% to 45% among registered voters in the inaugural Gallup Daily tracking results for April 11-15.

Other interesting results from the first Gallup Daily tracking poll of registered voters' general election preferences include:

• Both Obama and Romney are supported by 90% of their respective partisans.
• Romney voters are more likely to vote 80% to 76%.
• Romney does better among the critical Independent voters 45% to 39%.

Gallup's previous Obama v. Romney match up conducted March 25-26, showed Obama with a slight 49% to 45% lead over Romney. The change is similar to the results of the Rasmussen and Fox News polls reported over the weekend. pretty much what Scott Rasmussen predicted would happen when Rick Santorum called it quits.

In the accompanying video, Rasmussen says Obama and Romney are close with about 10 - 12 percent of the voters not committed to either candidate. Obama has a paltry 22% approval rating among those voters. According to Rasmussen, now that Romney is the presumed Republican nominee, the campaign is all about Obama and whether he can defend his record. Watch the video:

The Gallup Daily tracking of registered voters' general election preferences will be reported daily based upon continuous five-day rolling averages. Gallup started the general election polling on Wednesday, April 11, after Rick Santorum suspended his campaign.

According to Frank Newport, Gallup's Editor in Chief, polling done in the spring of an election year is not necessarily a reliable predictor for the election outcome.

Gallup's daily tracking poll has a margin of error of ±3 percentage points.

Obama: excuses rather than responsibility for his failed policies

"I'm not gonna make any excuses." -- Barack Obama

The good folks at the RNC have released a video highlighting President Obama's penchant for offering excuse after excuse rather take responsibility for his policy failures.

Watch the "From 'Hope' to Hypocrisy: Excuses, Excuses" video:

This is one more example of Obama saying one thing while doing another or trying to have things both ways. He says he is "not gonna make excuses," but continues to do so.

As  Salena Zito put it in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Obama has blamed the stagnant economy on ATMs, ditches, slurpees, corporate-jet owners, the TEA Party, Republicans, Japan’s earthquake, the Arab spring, the Arab summer, George Bush, and Wall Street  (Salena Zito, “Battlegrounds Of Resentment,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 8/28/11):

• Obama Blamed ATMs And Airport Kiosks For His Failure To Create Jobs. “[T]here are some structural issues with our economy, where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient, with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to the bank and use an ATM -- you don't go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport, and you're using a kiosk, instead of checking in at the gate.”  (NBC’s “Today,” 6/14/11)  
• Obama: The Republicans Are “Sipping On A Slurpee” And “Kicking Dirt” Onto Democrats. OBAMA: “And we've been pushing that car, pushing it, pushing it, pushing it.  The whole time the Republicans have been standing on the sidelines.  They’ve been looking down, fanning themselves, sipping on a Slurpee.  Kicking dirt down into the ditch.  Kicking dirt in our faces.  But we kept on pushing” (President Barack Obama, Remarks, Minneapolis, MN 10/23/10)
• Obama Tried To Blame The Japanese Earthquake And Arab Spring For Poor Economic Numbers. OBAMA: “Let me start by saying a few words about our economy.  There is no doubt this has been a tumultuous year.  We’ve weathered the Arab Spring’s effect on oil and gas prices, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami’s effect on supply chains, the extraordinary economic uncertainty in Europe.  And recently, markets around the globe have taken a bumpy ride.” (President Barack Obama, Remarks, Washington, D.C., 8/5/11)
• Obama Says He “Inherited” A Bad Economy. “Lately, Obama and his aides have taken to saying that they ‘inherited’ a troubled economy, a more subtle reference to the past at a time that many voters increasingly see Obama as being part of the problem.” (Peter Wallsten, “Obama: Bush Put Us In A Hole,” The Washington Post, 8/30/11)
• Obama: Problems In Europe “Wash Over Into Our Shores.” “But the truth of the matter is, is that we now live in a global economy where everything is interconnected, and that means that when you have problems in Europe and in Spain and in Italy and in Greece, those problems wash over into our shores.” (President Barack Obama, Remarks by the President at a DNC Event in Washington, DC, 8/8/11)

Obama has also blamed Congress even though for the first two years of the Obama presidency the Obamacrats controlled Congress:

•  Obama Blame's Congress. OBAMA: “Well, look, we anticipated that the recovery was slowing. The economy is still growing, but it's not growing as fast as it needs to.  I've got things right now before Congress that we should move immediately. And I said so before I went on vacation and I'll keep on saying it now that I'm back. We should be passing legislation that helps small businesses get credit.” (NBC's "Nightly News" 8/29/10) 
•  Obama Got Almost Everything He Wanted Out Of The Democrat-Controlled Congress.  “He passed $830 billion in stimulus, $3 billion for cash for clunkers, $30 billion in small business loans, $30 billion for mortgage modification, the GM-Chrysler bailouts, ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, credit card price controls, Build America Bonds, jobless benefits for a record 99 weeks, and more. The only priorities that a Democratic Congress blocked were cap-and-tax and union card check, and both of those would have further damaged growth and jobs. Even last December, after Republicans had retaken the House, Mr. Obama won his one-year payroll tax cut, more jobless benefits and most of what he wanted.” (Editorial, “The Latest Jobs Plan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/9/11) 
• “Mr. Obama Has Been The Least Obstructed President Since LBJ In 1965 Or FDR In 1933, Which Is How We Got Here.” “The larger political subtext of Mr. Obama's speech is that if Congress doesn't pass his plan, he'll then campaign against Republicans as obstructionist. Thus his speech mantra that Congress should ‘pass it right away.’ This ignores that Mr. Obama has been the least obstructed President since LBJ in 1965 or FDR in 1933, which is how we got here.” (Editorial, “The Latest Jobs Plan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/9/11)

Another Obama excuse is his claim he didn’t know how bad the economy was even though he said it was historic:

• President Obama Claims “We Didn’t Know How Bad It Was.” “President Barack Obama said Tuesday he wishes he knew the full extent of the economic crisis when he took office, if only so he could have let Americans know just how tough the coming years would be. ‘I think we understood that it was bad, but we didn’t know how bad it was,’ Obama said in an interview with KIRO in Seattle. ‘I think I could have prepared the American people for how bad this was going to be, had we had a sense of that.’” (Jennifer Epstein, “Barack Obama On Economic Crisis: ‘We Didn’t Know How Bad It Was,” Politico’s "44", 12/13/11)
• Obama: The Economic “Mess Has Been Bigger Than I Think A Lot Of People Anticipated At The Time.” CNN’S WOLF BLITZER: “When you took office, you said if I don’t have this done in three years then it's going to be a one-term proposition, meaning you’re going to be a one term president. Do you remember that?” OBAMA: “Well, here’s what I remember. When I came into office, I knew I was going to have a big mess to clean up. And frankly, the mess has been bigger than I think a lot of people anticipated at the time.” (CNN’s “The Situation Room,” 8/16/11) 
• September 2008: Obama: “We Are Going Through The Worst Financial Crisis Since The Great Depression.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks During First Presidential Debate, Oxford, MS, 9/26/08)
  
• October 2008: Obama: “We Meet Here At A Time Of Great Uncertainty. Our Economy Is In Crisis.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks, La Crosse, WI, 10/1/08)
• November 2008: Obama: “We Are Facing An Economic Crisis Of Historic Proportions.” (President-Elect Barack Obama, Remarks Announcing Members Of The Economic Team, Chicago, IL, 11/24/08) 
• A 2008 Report By Obama Advisor Larry Summers Described The Economic Crisis As “Grim And Deteriorating Rapidly” And Predicted America Could Lose 4 Million More Jobs Within The Year. “The initial debate was framed by a fifty-seven-page memo to the President-elect, dated December 15, 2008, written by Larry Summers, his incoming director of the National Economic Council. Marked ‘Sensitive and Confidential,’ the document, which has never been made public, presents Obama with the scale of the crisis. ‘The economic outlook is grim and deteriorating rapidly,’ it said. The U.S. economy had lost two million jobs that year; without a government response, it would lose four million more in the next year. Unemployment would rise above nine per cent unless a significant stimulus plan was passed. The estimates were getting worse by the day.” (Ryan Lizza, “The Obama Memos,” The New Yorker, 1/30/12)

Obama has made at least two attempts to accept responsibility. Three years ago, Obama appeared on NBC's "Today" show and and made his infamous "one-term proposition" prediction:

"I will be held accountable. You know, I’ve got four years. … A year from now, I think people are gonna see that we’re starting to make some progress, but there’s still gonna be some pain out there. If I don’t this done in three years, then there’s gonna be a one-term proposition."

In celebration the three-year anniversary of the Obama "one-term proposition" day, the RNC produced a video cataloguing Democrat leaders' descriptions of the poor economy under President Obama’s failed leadership.You can watch the "How Democrats Describe the Obama Economy" video here.

And Obama even admits that we are not better off than we were four years ago -- inviting comparisons to the malaise of Jimmy Carter's failed presidency.

It's way past time for Obama to stop the excuses and accept responsibility for his failed policies.

The terrific Ann Romney -- Mitt's not so secret weapon

Ann Romney appeared on America’s Morning with FOX News’ Martha MacCallum to respond to Hillary Rosen's ill-advised attack on Mrs. Romney for being a stay at home mom. You can watch the interview below.

Mrs. Romney handled the interview like a pro, adeptly pushing back against Rosen's unwarranted attack:

"I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.

[...]

He should have come to my house when those five boys were causing so much trouble. It wasn't so easy.... Maybe I haven't struggled as much financially as some people have, but I can tell you, I've had struggles in my life. I would love to have people understand that Mitt and I have compassion for people that are struggling."

Watch the video:

Ann Romney is the mother of five boys, grandmother to 16 grandchildren, a church, charity, and community volunteer, former Massachusetts First Lady, breast-cancer survivor, and suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. In addition to all that, she is Romney's not so secret weapon.

Townhall's Carol Platt Liebau put it better than I ever could:

For far too long, people like Rosen have made a cottage industry of trying to shame and demean women whose calling is that of a mother, wife and homemaker.... Those who stay home feel keenly the attempts to stigmatize them, while those who work outside the home carry their own burden of worries and regrets about the time they are missing with their children (even Rosen herself admits that she sometimes "envies" women who are not working for a paycheck).  All who struggle with this dilemma are deserving of social respect and compassion, whether they work for a paycheck or not.

Simply put, Anne Romney is terrific.